One of America’s most successful and charitable patent licensing strategists passed away last week.

Eugene M. Lang, describe as “an American folk hero” for his generous philanthropy, grew up on Manhattan’s East 83rd Street in a $12 per month railroad flat.

He went on to donate more than $150 million to charities and institutions during his lifetime for educational causes, including the I Have a Dream Foundation, which he established in 1981;the Eugene Lang College, part of the New School in Manhattan; the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University School of Business; and Swarthmore College, which he entered at 15 on a scholarship.

Much of Lang’s fortune was derived from the Refac Technology Development Corporation, it was reported in his obituary, a public company he founded in 1952 that specialized in the licensing of patents and financing high-tech ventures.

Thousands of Suits

“REFAC held patents relating to LCDs, ATMs, credit card verification systems, bar code scanners, VCRs, cassette players, camcorders, electronic keyboards, and spreadsheets,” reports Wikipedia, “and filed thousands of lawsuits against other corporations to secure licensing fees or out-of-court settlements, a business practice of some very large corporations such as Microsoft and Google as well as large startups such as Intellectual Ventures, and sometimes criticized as patent trolling.“

Some considered Refac International Ltd., known for suing thousands of big and small companies to protect its patents, the model on which other non-practicing entities (NPEs) were based. In 1990, the company was chastised by a federal appeals court in Washington after losing a major lawsuit it filed against 118 Southern California companies selling products with liquid crystal displays.

The New York Times reported that Refac — the name stands for resources and facilities — had made much of its money “by aggressively filing patent infringement suits against companies like IBM and Eastman Kodak and retailers like R.H. Macy and Radio Shack on behalf of inventors of a wide range of products: liquid crystal displays, automated teller machines, bar-code warning systems and spreadsheet software.”

In aletter to The Times[valuable for its historical and factual content], Mr. Lang called the article “grossly distorted” and pointed out that most of the clients represented in lawsuits had sought out Refac after offering licenses to the corporations for their inventions and being turned down.

He illustrated his argument by citing the inventor of the laser who had tried to get industry to recognize his role and succeeded only after Refac won validation of his patents in the courts.

“For Refac, the drama of litigation began in 1975 when Gordon Gould, after battling industry opposition since 1959, asked us to represent his claims as inventor of the laser,” wrote Lang.

“Concluding that Mr. Gould’s claims had genuine merit, Refac, against all odds, accepted the challenge. It took until 1987 and some $4 million, but the courts finally validated every patent of Mr. Gould’s. Despite vituperative reactions from the laser industry – analogous to quotations cited in your article – claims that in 1975 might have been labeled ”all but worthless” now generate annual royalties in excess of $12 million.

Impulsive Gesture

A self-made businessman who flew coach class and traveled on subways and buses, Lang is best remembered for his impulsive gesture in June 1981, when he was invited to deliver the commencement address to 61 sixth graders at Public School 121 on East 103rd Street in Spanish Harlem. He had attended P.S. 121 as a boy 50 years earlier.

He made himself personally available to the students, counseling them when they faced obstacles such as teen pregnancy, addiction, and delinquency. He cheered them at their graduations and helped arrange for jobs. When a student was incarcerated at Sing Sing, he helped him pursue college course work from prison.

In addition to his daughter, Jane Lang, a Washington lawyer and community activist, Lang is survived by two sons, David and the film and stage actor Stephen Lang (Avatar, Conan the Barbarian, Gettysburg); a sister, Barbara Lang; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Mr. Lang the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Coming up with better ideas for communication and transportation is nothing new. British Pathe captured many of the 20th Century’s most innovative on film.

A news film archive popular until television made it superfluous, British Pathé, recently made available for viewing on video 85,000 of its newsreels collected from 1896 to 1976. A group of eighteen focusing on new inventions is compelling for their simultaneous naiveté and vision.

They provide a useful perspective into not only what has been, but what the future might look like in retrospect.

British Pathé is one of the oldest media companies in the world. Its roots lie in 1890s Paris where founder, Charles Pathé, pioneered the development of the moving image. The company was established in London in 1902, and by 1910 was producing their famous bi-weekly newsreel the Pathé Gazette. By the time Pathé finally stopped producing the cinema newsreel in 1970 it had accumulated 3500 hours of filmed history amounting to over 90,000 individual items.

This newsreel clip of early attempts to improve communication and transportation illustrate how far technology has come and how far it still has to go. It’s amazing that the some of the clips are only 50 years old. One can only imagine what people will think 50 or 100 years from now when they look back on what we believe are our most advanced ideas (e.g. the driver-less car). One thing is for sure, they probably will not be as visually dramatic as attempts at early flight.

Some of the newsreels are humorous, others ingenious. They remind us that before there is innovation there is failure. Often, a lot of it. To dream boldly; to imagine as real what is believed impossible, is deeply ingrained. We should be mindful to nurture it.

The 18 items begin with a 1922 newsreel of the first mobile telephonehere. They are consecutive, so wait for a pause between each for the next to begin.

For the latest news on patent licensing companies click below:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Follow IP CloseUp

Follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn & Facebook

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

About Bruce Berman

I'm a long-time intellectual property observer, adviser and editor, who is in close close contact with the leading holders and most influential people. I track the latest trends and developments, and monitor patent and other IP transactions, strategy and performance.

Since 1988 I have been working with IP holders, managers, lawyers and investors to properly explain the importance of their assets to key audiences, frame disputes and convey transactions.

My five books, including the IP best-seller FROM IDEAS TO ASSETS, deal with IP rights as business assets. THE INTANGIBLE INVESTOR, the column I have been writing for IAM Magazine since 2003, looks at ways IP rights impact stakeholders. For my complete bio visit www.brodyberman.com or click on the link below.